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You may not have heard of Arnott and First Quadrant, but many Wall Street professionals have.

Since Arnott founded it in 1988, First Quadrant has been helping financial pros with investment strategies and asset allocation models. The company manages investments for domestic and international corporate and public pension plans, foundations and endowments, domestic and off-shore funds and rich individuals.

Recently, Arnott's influence has reached one of the largest, most widely-held funds in the world. His Research Affiliates company earlier this year became the first and only subadviser to bond giant PIMCO Funds, to build models for alternative investments beyond stocks, bonds and cash.

Arnott's research has netted a quartet of Graham and Dodd Scrolls, awarded annually by the Financial Analysts Federation. He also has two Bernstein Fabozzi/Jacobs Levy awards from the Journal of Portfolio Management, whose editorial board includes Arnott. He also sits on the product advisory board of the Chicago Board Options Exchange.

Avaya isn't a household name, yet it may be one of the more widely-held stocks in the United States, thanks to its parentage.

The company's pedigree is impressive, going back to Bell Laboratories. A former unit of AT&T and then Lucent Technologies after the latter was spun off from Ma Bell, Avaya -- whose technology originally stemmed from 1,600 patents of Bell Labs -- builds communications networks, as well as products for switches, call centers and voice mail, among others.

But Peterson's timing has been unfortunate, to say the least. The former chief financial officer and executive vice-president of Lucent became Avaya's CEO when it was spun off from Lucent in October 2000 -- just in time for the communications downturn of the last two years.

The company's revenue has declined in each of the last six quarters reported, and despite cost-cutting efforts, Avaya posted operating losses in every quarter of its fiscal 2002, which ended Sept. 30. The stock price has mirrored the company's fortunes:

Avaya has said it expects to stop losing money by the middle of 2003. For now, analysts aren't expecting much: the consensus recommendation of analysts following the stock is a "hold" rating, according to Thomson First Call.

Peterson was CFO of AT&T's Communications Services Group before joining Lucent in 1996. Before AT&T hired him in 1995, Peterson spent 19 years at Nortel.

A native of Worcester, Mass., Peterson graduated with a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering in 1971 from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, for whom he is currently a trustee. He received an MBA from Dartmouth College in 1973, and is a chartered life underwriter and chartered financial analyst.